Above: Seed cleaning and sorting.
Photo Courtesy of Hawaii Island Seed Bank
Hawaii Island Seed Bank
We are excited to see the Hawaii Island Seed Bank thriving and expanding their seed catalogue and partnership base. Creating a seed bank is a critical step towards safeguarding the future of Hawaiian native plants that are in danger of disappearing due to an array of environmental threats. From our perspective, a seed bank will help preserve native dryland tree and shrub species that are threatened by large catastrophic fires that not only kill the vegetation, but destroy their seeds, as well. Should one of these fires occur in the near future, which is more than likely, these seeds will serve an incredible function in post-fire restoration projects. We took a proactive stance in the getting the project going by putting forward funding for the project, including for the purchase and shipment of a commercial refrigeration system to their facility.
Check out their website to find out more about the project and ways that you can contribute as a seed donor, or receive seeds from the bank for your own restoration projects.